Siblings by nature: Friends by choice

I have been seeing a lot of this lately.







And with this new baby coming in just a month it is so nice to see them playing more together. They also help each other out more. I hope this new baby doesn't get left out when they're all older. No guarantees on another sibling along the way!

Saving sunflower seeds

My niece gave Emma about 6 sunflower seeds two summers ago. She planted 2 in her garden last year but we didn't get a chance to save any. Sometime before planting season this last summer the package got tipped and we lost all but two. So she planted those two in this years garden. One nearly got eaten to the ground by the earwigs - nasties! but it must have loved her because it fought back and grew beautiful flowers for her!



A volunteer cherry tomato plant grew right inbetween them and I helped it vine up their thick stems. (I couldn't find the neat picture I took) It worked so well that I am planning on doing it that way with my garden next year!

Anyway we saved the seed from just one of the plants. It is called a poly-headed sunflower because of all of the flowers on just one plant. As you can see one (my favorite) grew gorgeous rust colored flowers. The one that nearly got eaten grew bright sunny yellow blooms. But it didn't grow as many or for as long - perhaps because it had such a rough start? But my sister and I thought it was very interesting that only one color (yellow or red) grew on each plant and want to experiment and see if that was an anomaly or always the case. And do you only get red from red plants or some red, some yellow? She saved some from her yellow bloom plants for me and we'll see what we get next year!!

Success!!

Remember this failure post?

Well, I have a success! Gluten-free playdough that acts almost just like that other stuff! The secret? Potatoes! I haven't taken the time to really fiddle around with it too much but I use a recipe for potato biscuts. How did I discover this you ask? Well, I decided to try a new biscuit recipe and while I was cutting them out Daniel was playing with a scrap of dough. It took me a bit to realize that he was molding it and moving it around and it was holding up! The actual biscuits, btw, were discusting. I didn't care though because I was so excited about my discovery!

It's a bit hard to work the color through at first and you have to store it in the fridge to keep the potatos fresh longer.

Emma really liked to play with it but Daniel was leary of getting his hands in it.
I asked Tuan to take a picture and Em didn't want to look at the camera. So I told her I would make a silly face if she did.

Mini Concert

Both Daniel's and Emma's interest in the violin has increased. I'm pretty sure that he will be getting a violin for his birthday. It looks so natural in his hands.

I love how I cought Emma mid-word. It really looks lie how it sounded.

Meet Penelope

Do you see her?

See her now?

Em found her in the lawn and immediately she became a pet.

She went through a few names and after a brief stint as Pendraggen, became Penelope.

We made her a home and made her a bed of leaves.

After a scare on the couch when Penelope went missing and visions of a smushed Penelope and very upset Emma I decreed that Penelope only come out of the jar outside.

Emma really cared about Penelope. She would bring her out for fresh air and put her in the shade if it was hot. It was really sweet!

Treasures

Where would a 4-year old keep her treasures?

Under her pillow of course!


Princess and the pea she is not! I'm sure I couldn't sleep on top of all of that! But then, my head is heavier.






Aug 09

Sigh. The season is coming to a close.

But there is squash and pumpkins to look forward to!

This is from his garden. I thought it was huge but a few days later we found an even bigger one hiding among the leaves!


On our way home from the lake we passed a produce stand right in front of the field where they grew the veggies.


Emma LOVES raw corn on the cob! She didn't even wait to get home before she started eating it. She shucked it right in the car!














Aug 09

We have a deal

my sister and I. Each week we trade off visiting each other's homes. She wrote an absolutely beautiful post on her blog that you must go read! Really! Go read it. Right here.

The very first week we did this she came to visit us. And boy did I put her to work! We (and when I say we I mean Tuan) just rearranged almost every room in our house. The kitchen and bathroom stayed where they were. The master bedroom became the guest room, the toy room became the living room and the living room became the master bedroom. The large room that housed the washer/dryer/freezer in the basement is now the toy room. We have a lot of toys. And it was not exactly up to par (ahem-spiders-ahem) to having children play in it. So my awesome sister did all the heavy lifting and helped with ideas and suggestions for a creative layout. It might look like we just moved stuff from here to there but don't be fooled - there was a lot of cleaning and reorganizing. It has taken a bit to get used to but so far it's working out really great! THANK YOU Sarah!

Before . . .


During . . .


After!


My sister found this mirror languishing behind a box of college books. Look what she did with it. No sooner had she set it up next to the dress up box then there were four little kids twirling and preening in front of it. Inspired!

This is how we originally put it. The next day I got some hangers and Em helped me hang all the dresses up to make room in the box for the rest of the dress up stuff! I secured the mirror with bungee cords. It's not going anywhere! Well, until one of the kids decides to figure out how bungee cords attach!















Aug 09

me time

Tuan, I would like to update my blog. Would you occupy the kids while I do that?

Ahhh - peace at last!





Aug 09

right this minute

Aug 09

Hammock

My birthday this year fell on a Thursday. As a surprise during our Saturday shopping trip Tuan gave me a coupon for a container of dairy-free ice cream! He knows me well. On our way out we passed this hammock on sale - 50% off! I have wanted a hammock ever since our last one broke. So really, my birthday was on Saturday! Thank you Tuan - it was a great day and the whole family loves it!








Aug 09

Snapshot Sunday

New name

If you look you will see that my blog has changed names. Keep an eye on it because I'm sure it will change again as I search for a new name that fits. This blog is almost five years old now after all!

Comments and suggestions welcome, of course!

Fun August Pics

My sister found some foam swords on clearance and my kids loved playing with them and were sad when they had to go to a different home. So I went to the store and the same swords rang up - well, not on clearance. So we decided to make our own! Luckely 'tis the season for water foam noodles to go on clearance. We found two and used my stash of pvc pipe scraps to make our own. How did I know how to do this? Another sister (who just happens to throw fabulous birthday parties for her kids) had made these swords a few years ago. Find the tutorial on her blog here.


I love living close to family. You will see what fabulous flowers she has in her daughter's butterfly garden in her Today's Flowers series on her blog. This bouquet Emma picked was so beautiful it deserved two pictures! And she even gave me some seeds so that we can have our own patch next year!



I like to call this one Death by Potato Chips
LOL



Emma loves to look at the fake nails in the store and I finally found some that are made just for little fingernails like hers. She kept putting them on and taking them off. She loved them!







Aug 09

I love this picture of Emma.

Three in one lap

Almost there! Maybe when baby comes I'll take the same pic with baby on the outside.